Ireland's 'Vanishing Triangle' For more than a decade, there's been a deepening mystery around Dublin: a growing number of young women have disappeared. But finally, the investigations may be yielding some answers.

The frightening disappearances began in 1993, with American Annie McCarrick, a 26-year-old from upstate New York, who had gone to college in Ireland, returned their intent on absorbing the country's history and her family's heritage.

She shared an apartment with two female roommates in Sandymount, a quiet residential section of Dublin. In March 1993, Annie was eagerly awaiting a visit from her mother.

On Friday, March 26, just days before her mother was due to arrive, Annie didn't show up as expected to pick up her paycheck at work. On Saturday, when her friends arrived at her apartment for a previously arranged dinner party, there was no sign of Annie.

Annie's father, John McCarrick, said he knew immediately something was terribly wrong when her friends in Dublin called him to say they didn't know where Annie was. "She was always reaching out and touching someone. … She would never have gone a day without talking to someone. … We were very, very concerned," he said.

The McCarricks left immediately for Ireland, where the hunt for their daughter became one of the largest searches in Ireland's history. In their fear and desperation, the family also turned to seasoned investigator Brian McCarthy, recommended by officials at the American Embassy.

"There were very difficult days, those days, to live with the McCarrick family and see day after day the anguish that they had, the terror of what they felt might have happened to their only child," McCarthy recalled.

The last thing anyone knows for sure about Annie McCarrick is that on the morning she disappeared, she'd run errands at the local bank and grocery store. What happened after that, police can only guess. One witness claims to have seen Annie later that day on a No. 44 city bus. The bus' route ends in the classic Irish small town of Enniskerry, where Annie frequently visited.

Witnesses next place Annie around 9 p.m. that night at Johnny Fox's pub, 3 miles outside Enniskerry, nestled at the base of the Wicklow Mountains. It's another spot stepped in Irish tradition and popular with both locals and tourists.

What makes the testimony of witnesses at Johnny Fox's more frightening is the fact that they say Annie, who had no apparent boyfriend at the time, was seen with an unidentified man. A police composite sketch of Annie's alleged companion was distributed around the country. And authorities began an exhaustive search of the countryside around Johnny Fox's.

Soon after they had arrived in Ireland, Nancy and John McCarrick saw firsthand the friendship and feelings their daughter had engendered. Still, it was small comfort on a day when police were searching for their daughter's body.

A Sorrow That Would Hit Other Families

The McCarricks' dedication in the search for their daughter engendered respect and compassion all over Ireland -- particularly from families of other young women who had gone missing.

Collette McCann recalls watching the McCarricks' grief on her local news, not knowing she would soon be experiencing a similar tragedy, when her sister vanished.

"I remember seeing her father on the television in Ireland and I remember seeing the sorrow and the sadness and the anguish on that family's face. And I remember thinking to myself, 'God bless them.' I couldn't imagine anybody going through that. But then it was a very short 12 weeks later that we were going through the exact same thing with Eva," said McCann.

Her sister, Eva Brennan, vanished after she left a family gathering on a Sunday afternoon.

"I felt despair as to what could have happened to these girls. Annie was missing, and Eva Brennan went missing. To me, it was like a bad dream reoccurring," investigator McCarthy said.

And as it turned out, the nightmare was only beginning. Just months after Annie McCarrick vanished from Dublin, there was another case from the Irish suburbs that would turn out to have disturbing similarities to Annie's.

At first, no one made a connection, and no one suspected that the number of missing women would continue to grow.

Just as with Annie, the search for Eva yielded no answers. And there were other similarities between the cases, according to Geraldine Niland, a journalist writing a book on Ireland's missing women.

Both women, Annie McCarrick and Eva Brennan, were visible one moment and then gone. And Eva was just like Annie. She was quite close to her family and maintained contact. It wasn't -- it wouldn't be like her to kind of vanish or disappear.

From the start, both families worried that their loved ones were victims of foul play. And as time went on, the possibilities of what may have happened became more profoundly disturbing.

And the questions surrounding the disappearances became even more chilling as the sadness and the terror spread. Annie McCarrick and Eva Brennan disappeared in Dublin's closest suburbs. Then, the mystery moved out into the quiet countryside. In November 1995, 21-year-old JoJo Dullard went missing.

"JoJo lived with her sister in a small town in County Kilkenny. Thursday, Nov. 9, she met with friends in Dublin, and she was supposed to catch a bus and return by Thursday evening. However, she got slightly sidetracked chatting with her friends, and she missed the last bus," said Niland.

JoJo chose what was then a common transportation alternative for women in Ireland: hitchhiking. Her first ride took her halfway to the little town of Moone. "She phoned her friend from a phone box there. And she told her friend that she was hitching a ride, and waiting for another ride to come along. Then, suddenly, when she was talking with her friend, she said, 'Oh, a car is coming, and I have to go now.' And she put down the phone. And that is the last we head of JoJo Dullard," Niland said.

JoJo had been raised by her older sisters who worried when she'd left for the larger world of Dublin to become a beautician.

"I gave her a little ring and a little bracelet, and I'll always remember in the room, she says to me, 'Mary, when I finish my beauty course in Dublin, you know, I'll come home to you and I'll do your hair and I'll have you looking nice.' And I never saw her again. It's terrible," said her sister Mary Phelan.

Life at Mary Phelan's rural farmhouse took on one focus, pressuring authorities to keep JoJo's case alive.

Funds were raised to erect a small monument for JoJo, placed next to the phone booth from which she made that final call. Mary's tireless actions were inspired, she says, by a man who became her role model: Annie McCarrick's father.

"When Annie disappeared, I admired her dad. I saw him on the television, and I thought, 'My God, what is this man going through? What is he really going through?' That's been a great help to me. If John can go out there and do so much for Annie, then why can't I do it? He was a great influence on me," she said.

Annie and Jojo were united in a way -- authorities placed their missing posters, less than a block apart, on Dublin's busiest street.

The Vanishing Triangle

As time went on, so many young women disappeared that an area around Dublin would became known as the Vanishing Triangle. And just recently, there have been headlines suggesting a chilling answer to the mysteries there.

The Vanishing Triangle begins in Dublin where McCarrick and Brennan disappeared, then goes southwest to Moone, where JoJo Dullard vanished. From there, that sad geometry heads north, to the seaside town of Dundalk, where 17-year-old Ciara Breen went missing.

On Feb. 13, 1997, Ciara and her mother talked late into the night. "She said, 'Well, I'm tired, mom. I'm going to bed.' She gave me the, the kiss and the hug, and she says, `Good night, mom. See you in the morning. I love you.' And that was it. That was the last, and that's really what I have to hang on to now, that the last thing she said to me was 'I love you,'" her mom recalls.

Police believe Ciara left the house on her own later. Her window latch was open from the inside. It's tragic and unbelievable enough when only one woman so completely disappears. But in the Vanishing Triangle, Ciara Breen was not the last.

In February 1998, 19-year-old Fiona Sinnott disappeared, after leaving a pub in Wexford. Earlier, in the town of Tullamore, 25-year-old model Fiona Pender went missing. As the numbers mounted, the Irish press was proposing a chilling possibility, one the police were beginning to take more seriously -- the disappearances could be tied to a serial killer.

"You have the same profile, young, attractive females, who have all disappeared inside a very close geographical triangle. The common denominator is there's no evidence left behind, there's no evidence at all. No shoe, no belt, no purse, no watch, nothing," McCarthy said.

In July 1998, fears of a serial killer reached a peak with the disappearance of an 18-year-old student teacher, Deirdre Jacob.

As with Annie McCarrick, the last things known for sure about Deirdre's whereabouts were captured by security cameras: the local bank, the post office and passing by on the main street of Newbridge, where she lived. Police established that after doing errands and visiting her grandmother in the middle of town, Deirdre was returning home along a country road she'd walked all her life.

"Neighbors saw her about 200 yards from her home. And then, suddenly, she was gone. She literally was standing at the side of the road, about to cross over into her home, and then, she was gone," Niland said.

Deirdre Jacob's shocking disappearance in broad daylight crystallized fears that a serial killer may be roaming the Irish countryside. Police responded to the increased barrage from the press and public by forming a special task force, Operation Trace.

For the first time, the information on all the missing women was gathered in one place. Six cases were targeted for review with a fresh eye by detectives not involved with the original investigations.

Only the most basic characteristics unite the missing women. They are all between 17 and 39 and they all disappeared within an 80-mile radius of Dublin.

The Trace operation marked a new commitment to investigate mysteries the missing women's families still live with every day.

Under the strain of their ordeal, John and Nancy McCarrick divorced five years after Annie disappeared.

It's now 13 years later, and the grip of that mystery has not loosened.

The passage of time has brought no conclusion about what happened to Annie McCarrick after she left her Dublin apartment on a Friday afternoon. But just recently the Irish press posed a chilling answer. Headlines linked Annie to a man known as the Werewolf; his real name is Robert Howard.

"Robert Howard is a known sexual deviant, a killer, a rapist, murderer. Robert Howard is the personification of evil in Ireland," said Jilly Beattie, a reporter.

At 61, Howard is currently serving a life sentence in England for the 2001 **** and murder of a 14-year-old girl there.

And now he's of interest in several cases in and beyond the Vanishing Triangle.

"Robert Howard was connected with Annie McCarrick's case, Jojo Dollard's case and various other cases in Northern Ireland and in the south of Ireland and in England," said Beattie.

Howard's got a string of sexual convictions, including an attack on a 6-year-old girl and the **** of a 58-year-old woman.

"We understand from our own contacts that he was in and out of the area, around the time that Annie was enjoying life in Ireland," said Beattie.

"All the while he relied on his quaint Irishness as a man who wore tweed jackets and just looked like an ordinary man, to encourage people to trust him," she added.

Investigators say Annie felt very safe in her Irish neighborhood and had the kind of outgoing innocence to be easy prey for a man like Howard.

Police in Dublin will say nothing on the record as to what may or may not be any interest in Robert Howard and these cases. Reportedly, the clues linking Howard are his presence in the area when the women vanished and his long history of abductions.

But Jilly Beattie says her contacts imply there may be more.

She said some of her sources "would put their life savings on the fact that Robert Howard was involved in these murders. And it's crippling for them as investigators, as professional men and women, that the clues are there, but the evidence isn't there to back it up," she said.

"We don't have a crime scene. We don't have a body. That obviously creates its own difficulty. And it makes it harder for the investigator to utilize new technology," said John O'Mahony, who now oversees these cases. And while Irish police never make public comments on possible persons of interest, O'Mahony did confirm the serial killer theory was in play.

Another Possible Suspect?

While the notion that a serial killer was at work in the vanishing triangle seems ever more likely, there are conflicting theories over who it might be.

Geraldine Niland said she's got a different possibility.

The Wicklow mountain area outside of Dublin is the last spot witnesses place missing American Annie McCarrick.

Investigators now believe, even if she didn't disappear there, it's where she might be buried.

Seven years after Annie vanished, a **** case in the same area set off alarms. The man involved was a 36-year-old carpenter named Larry Murphy.

"[He]very much looks like the boy next door, and he had no criminal record, until he came to light in February 2000 when he abducted a young businesswoman who he had been stalking," Niland said.

It happened in the town of Carlow, within the area now known as the Vanishing Triangle.

Murphy waited one day in the parking area near her office, his car parked in slot five. When she walked by he jumped out, hit her in the face hard enough to break her nose and forced her into his car trunk.

He sped off, drove nine miles to a secluded spot and raped her. Then forced her back in the trunk.

"He then drove another 14 miles to another location where he then took her out of the boot of the car and raped her again. And this second location was in the woods … in County Wicklow," Niland said.

By some pure coincidence, the life of this woman was spared. "Literally, out of nowhere, two men appeared. And this obviously spooked Larry Murphy. He panicked and sped off in the car," Niland said.

Murphy, easily identified by the woman and the hunters, was quickly apprehended by the Irish police, known as the Gardai.

Reports quickly noted that a surprise attack by a total stranger was a profile that could fit the Vanishing Triangle cases.

There were plenty of questions. Did he bear any resemblance to a police sketch made after witnesses said they saw a man with Annie in a Wicklow area pub? There was a lot of circumstantial interest.

The victim in the Carlow **** case was the same age as Annie McCarrick. It turns out Murphy lived a few towns away from where JoJo Dullard disappeared. And he was working as a carpenter near where Deirdre Jacob vanished.

Interesting for reporters, but not enough for police to make a case.

Murphy was sentenced to 15 years in the **** case. Officials say since his conviction the disappearances have stopped. But now, ironically, under Irish law, while he's in prison for one crime, he cannot be questioned about any other without some convincing clues.

Before news of a Vanishing Triangle spread across Ireland, young women felt safe enough to hitchhike on country roads.

But that string of disappearances shook the whole country's sense of safety, and derailed the lives of individual families.

While police were forming a special unit to investigate these cases, a candlelight mass for all of Ireland's missing was held in the town of Moone. Families were acknowledging together what they separately feared -- that their loved ones were never coming back.

After years of fundraising by the families, the monument Mary Phelan envisioned became a reality.

"For Mary, this is how she coped with the disappearance of JoJo," said Niland. "Her great efforts culminated in a wonderful garden in Kilkenny Castle with this monument to missing people.

The design is based on the notion of hands reaching out to the missing, with the casts for the hands taken from the families of the vanished.

"Because we don't know where they are. They could be scattered around Ireland. It'll be nice to think that this is where they are. This is the monument we made to them," said Collette McCann, whose sister, Eva, is one of the women who went missing in Ireland's Vanishing Triangle.

Larry Murphy earned his reputation as one of the most feared and hated criminals in our history when he abducted, raped and almost killed a woman on one chilling night

By Ken Foy

Wednesday November 28 2012

Larry Murphy earned his reputation as one of the most feared and hated criminals in our history when he abducted, raped and almost killed a woman on one chilling night

The sadistic violence dished out by Murphy on a cold February night in 2000, coupled with the fact that his terrified victim survived only after two hunters happened on the scene, was deeply disturbing.

The predator used all his cunning and know-how to corner and trap a young woman who was finishing up her day’s work and about to travel home.

It was around 8.15pm on a Friday evening in Carlow town when he abducted the 26-year-old businesswoman after she opened the door to her car in a secluded carpark.

He demanded her bag, containing the day’s takings of IR£700 — and then hit out, fracturing her nose.

Dazed and shocked, she fell backwards into the car.

Murphy — then 36 — ordered the woman to move to the passenger seat and take off her bra, with which he tied her hands.

He then drove her car across a narrow roadway, made her get out and walked her to his own car, putting her in the boot.

The callous rapist turned up his stereo to mask the sound of the woman’s efforts to summon help by banging on the inside of the boot — and drove off.

The nightmare had only just begun.

A keen hunter, Murphy had detailed knowledge of the Wicklow-Kildare-Carlow area.

He drove his victim eight miles from Carlow to an isolated spot called Beaconstown, where he stopped his car and pulled her from the boot, raping her before pretending he was going to take her home.

Recalling the events in a statement to gardai, she said: “I felt so numb, I couldn’t move. I just hoped it would all end. I feared for my life the whole time, I thought, ‘This is it’.”

Aerosol

Murphy then headed into the foothills of the Wicklow mountains and on to an isolated forest track, where he raped her a further three times.

When he had finished, he tied her hands behind her back and again led her back to the boot of the vehicle.

This time she managed to free her hands and tried to spray Murphy with an aerosol can.

But the canister did not work. Murphy overpowered her and put a plastic bag over her head.

The woman struggled but Murphy pulled the plastic tightly over her mouth.

Somehow the terrified **** victim managed to climb out of the boot, but was slipping in and out of consciousness.

Facing certain death, she was only saved when two men out hunting foxes stumbled on the nightmare scene.

Realising the game was up, Murphy jumped into his car and sped away, while his panic-stricken victim ran to a ditch.

Her two saviours, Ken Jones and Trevor Moody, took her to a garda station and identified her attacker, whom they recognised from a previous incident in a local pub.

Meanwhile Murphy went home, went to bed without washing himself and made love to his heavily pregnant wife.

It would be Murphy’s last night as a free man for more than a decade, but it is far from being the only crime he has been been associated with.

Murphy was widely though to be linked to the disappearance of six young women between 1993 and 1998 — mysteries that still grip Ireland.

Murphy was interviewed in prison about at least three of these cases — Jo Jo Dullard, Deirdre Jacob and Annie McCarrick — but refused to co-operate. Ultimately gardai could find no specific evidence linking him to the cases.

But tellingly the disappearances stopped when he was arrested in 2000 and there is little doubt that many senior officers believe that he was responsible for at least some of the murders.

Could this have been Larry's Lair?THIS eerie hunting lodge buried deep in a lonely woods could be straight from the set of a horror movie. But today the Sunday World can reveal that the abandoned hut in the wilds of west Wicklow is at the centre of a new cold case probe into Ireland's most feared predator, Larry Murphy. Gardai have begun investigating possible links between the lodge and the suspected serial killer who is now a free man.

Chillingly, it lies at the end of a road just 800 METRES from where Beast of Baltinglass Murphy raped and tried to murder a terrified woman. A Sunday World investigation has found that the location and its significance may have been overlooked by earlier inquiries into Murphy's possible links to other missing women cases. It has only emerged now after an academic study by a forensic scientist who scoured the countryside while studying Murphy's crimes.

The highly qualified expert was researching the possible links between Ireland's missing women in his spare time and became convinced prime suspect Murphy chose the remote spot where he attempted to kill his victim for a specific reason.

"From very early on I was of the view that there was great significance in the location," said the scientist, who asked not to be named, said. "The cartography supports that."

A map shows the proximity between the scene of Murphy's horrific attack at a local landmark known as Bridget's Headstone, the hut and his family home in Woodside. The scientist, who has a specialised interest in missing persons, has spoken to gardai about his findings and they are now hoping to interview whoever built the structure and find out if Murphy - a keen hunter and a carpenter by trade - is linked to the den or ever used it.

The frail, wheelchair-bound owner of the land where the hut was built told the scientist that the lodge was built by "a neighbour". But he denied that the neighbour was Larry Murphy when questioned by the Sunday World.

Ignatz Graf (Count) von Westerholt, who is due to be interviewed by gardai, said, "We have nothing to contribute", when approached at his Kilranelagh home. He would not clarify which neighbour built it, refusing to comment any further, saying only, "no, no, no" when asked more questions. In correspondence with the scientist, the Count, who grows Christmas trees, claimed that the hut was built 20 years ago in 1991 for clay pigeon shooting. While it is still clearly being used by occasional hunters, at one time up to about 10 years ago it was well maintained with running water, electricity, a stove and a toilet.

Ireland's worst spate of unsolved vanishings began in 1993 when American student Annie McCarrick went missing after getting a bus to Enniskerry in east Wicklow, and abruptly ended when Murphy was jailed over 10 years ago. The hut - two miles from his home and 800 metres from his attack site - was well maintained during those years but seems to have fallen into disrepair now.

Suffocate

Cops will now try to discover if the evil rapist knew of its whereabouts and ever used it. If links can be discovered it could be the subject of searches and x-ray probes. It's situated at the end of a dirt track into forestry beside which Larry was caught red-handed trying to suffocate his victim with a plastic bag. Dense trees are planted in a circle around it, disguising the lodge completely from view in summer.

The independent researcher who stumbled across it said he believes Larry intended to bring the victim who had a miracle escape from his clutches to the hut.

"It's important to consider the hut and the road, not as they are, but as they were," he said.

"The hut may be in a state of disrepair today. But some time back it was very cosy, having a wood-burning stove, running water, aflush toilet and electricity."

The scientist lives abroad but said the lodge has a stove, and a woodpile of chopped logs. A carpenter's offcuts sit at the ready in a handcrafted basket alongside. Even the floors been expertly fitted.There are two sinks which once had running water and a flush toilet with a septic tank. Windows have even been fitted in the secluded, almost inaccessible refuge with a shooting gallery out front.Hunters

RIDDLE: Cops may probe property further

RIDDLE: Cops may probe property furtherThe hut, 21 foot wide by 10 foot deep with an eight-foot deep shooting gallery out front, is not secure - anyone could come or go under the cover of night or day without ever being noticed. Bright clay pigeons scatter the floor and a drum of lactic acid - for skinning deer - sits on a workbench, suggesting it is still used by hunters today despite its ramshackle state. There are old mugs in the inbuilt presses, and cleaning agents under the sink.

The short walk between the crime scene, Larry's car, and the hut in Kilranelagh is blocked by a low pole that stops cars from driving past it - the spot where Larry parked his Fiat Punto in February 2000. Five hunter's game-watch towers - one fallen - are peppered along the eerie walk to the out-of-the-way hut. Larry's hunting background was a source of real concern on the morning of his arrest for gardai who approached his home - because he was entitled to keep weapons there.

In February 2000, the father-of-two drove a 28-year-old businesswoman he'd abducted from a public car park to this middle-of-nowhere spot. After raping her again within a short walk of the hut, he tried to kill her before he was miraculously interrupted by two hunters who saw a naked woman's legs jutting out of the boot of his car.

SINISTER: Drum of acid for skinning deer

"The most significant aspect of Larry Murphy's behaviour on the night of the rescue was the length and actual direction of the journey taken," the forensic scientist claimed.

"Taking his victim firstly to a place he knows well - 15 kilometres from the abduction site [to Beaconstown] and then another 25 kilometres to a place he knows even better [Kilranelagh], which is very close to his home, tells me that he can only function in his comfort zone. He has to feel safe."

The scientist said he found the hut "surreal" when he first saw the shack, because it is so out of the way.

"After countless hours looking at recent and historic maps, I concluded that a boots-on-the-ground approach was required," the scientist explained.

So meticulous was his research, he even attempted to establish exactly how long it's been since the lodge was properly tended by having the vegetation analysed.

"Based on the condition of the hut, my guess is that it has not been used for a decade or so."

The scientist states that crucial forensic evidence could still be found by gardai, if anything more sinister occurred in the hideout.

"Human hair is very robust and all the missing women had medium to long hair," the independent researcher said.Splatter

Building has not been used in a long time

"If anything resulting in blood staining splatter happened in the hut, the evidence should still be recoverable.

Murphy's home, Woodside, where his wife and children lived, is less than two miles away from the lodge as the crow flies. By road, it's between four and five kilometres. Murphy was released last year and escaped pursuing gardai and media by jumping from a taxi down Dublin's Grafton Street. His last known location was Barcelona but there are regular rumours of him being sighted in Ireland since he returned home earlier this year. He's the prime suspect in the cases of three of the missing women - including 19-year-old student Deirdre Jacob and 21-year-old Jo Jo Dullard

Larry Murphy the main suspect for the murder of three women here, has made friends with an Irish double rapist in Amsterdam.

The Dublin man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, raped two women at knife point in the south of the city more than 10 years ago.

The two men became "close pals" while they were both serving time for their crimes in Arbour Hill Prison in Dublin, which houses the country's sex offenders.

Murphy served a sentence for the **** of a young woman from Carlow and was about to murder her when he was interrupted by hunters.

Our photos show Murphy with the other Irish man in Amsterdam where Murphy tried to interact with female passers-by.

A garda source told the Irish Independent: "The man you have photographed with Murphy is a total brute just like his friend. He carried out a horrific attack on those two women.

"And like Murphy he had not come to garda attention before that event."

Security sources have described the attack by Murphy's friend as "absolutely horrific".

He held the women hostage in an apartment and attacked them with a knife.

He then took turns raping both of them, but was arrested soon after by uniformed gardai from Tallaght station.

Like Murphy, the Dublin man admitted his crimes -- but offered no explanation for his savage act.

In October 2002 he was jailed for 10 years after pleading guilty to four counts of ****.

It is understood he is on the sex offenders' register, which had come into existence six months before his conviction in the Dublin Central Criminal Court.

The double rapist, who was released in 2008, kept in touch with Murphy who was himself released in August 2010.

But it wasn't discovered that the two men are now effectively living together until Murphy was tracked down to Amsterdam as part of a special investigation for the Irish Independent.

It is understood Murphy helped his friend get a job at the same logistics firm in May.

The double rapist collects Murphy for work every morning at 4am on his scooter.

Sordid

And whenever the suspected serial killer goes out, he travels with his friend on the bike.

The men are rarely seen apart, and seem to spend all their free time together.

They were seen going fishing together, and the man regularly spends the night in Murphy's flat, which is situated in a quiet suburb where no one is aware of their sordid past.

The chilling revelation that Murphy's closest friend is also a dangerous rapist will be a source of grave concern to police.

Sources in Holland have confirmed that the Amsterdam police "are aware" of the presence of the two men in the city. A security source described the revelation by the Irish Independent as "very disturbing".

"If the only company Larry Murphy keeps is also a violent sex offender then it is hard to see how either of them has reformed. They should be kept under very close supervision."

Murphy has been living in the European sex and drugs capital for more than a year.

He only spent three weeks in Ireland since his release from prison despite reported sightings in practically every county in Ireland.

Murphy has told probation workers and gardai that he has no intention of ever coming back here because he fears for his safety.

AN ANGRY crowd gathered outside a government-run halfway house for ex-convicts last night amid speculation that freed rapist Larry Murphy was staying there.The group of up to 60 protesters gathered outside Priorswood House in Coolock on Dublin's northside chanting "get him out".Gardai last night denied Murphy was staying at the Department of Justice-built facility.

Convicted rapist Larry Murphy is roaming the streets of Amsterdam's Red Light District according to Irish locals.

The Wicklow man was released from Arbour Hill prison last August after spending ten-and-a-half years in jail for the abduction, repeated **** and attempted murder of a Carlow businesswoman in 2000.

While in prison, Murphy was questioned about the disappearance of several women in the Leinster area in the 1990's including New York born Annie McCarrick.

Now according to the News of the World, the father of two is living in Amsterdam and frequently Irish bars in the lively Warmoestraat area.

Bartenders in the Hoopman Cafe and Bar told the newspaper that Murphy has become a regular.

“I didn’t know who he was at the time, but he drank here day and night. He would sit in the same seat, hunched over and staring straight ahead.

“He was quiet but the more he drank the more he would try to make conversation or make eye contact with the girls.

“He was a bit of an oddball, but he never did anything that would make you suspect that he was capable of murder.”

The blond Irish woman said that at first she suspected Murphy wasn't an English speaker, because he was so quiet. But when the bartender heard his familiar Irish accent she asked him why he was in Amsterdam.

“I remember this conversation because I asked him if he was over here looking for work and he replied 'No I'm here for different reasons'.

“At the time I thought it was strange answer but though little of it after that”.

In another conversation Murphy told the bartender he liked to smoke weed.

“He was strange, I knew there was something up with him.He always wore big woolly jumpers and jeans or corduroy trousers. He was scruffy and unshaven...he looked like he was on the verge of being homeless.”

Another bar employee said “He has everything he needs here. He told me he likes his drugs, he clearly likes his beer and hookers are legal. It's heaven for him”

Another female bar worker said she is now terrified at the prospect of walking around the city alone.

“Before we found out about Murphy being here the girls I live with and I, would walk home alone, but not now we're terrified of him lurking about. It send shivers down my spine.”

A Dutch police source confirmed to the newspaper that the Irishman was now residing in the Dutch capital.

“We can confirm that Larry Murphy is in Amsterdam but we cannot tell you much more than that”

“There is an interest in him from the police in Ireland and when we come across him again he'll be taken in and warned that we're keeping a very close eye on him,” the source added.

An unnamed man with qualifications in forensic psychology and offender profiling who spoke anonymously to a Sunday newspaper at the end of last year is apparently the cause of the latest search of lands at Kilranelagh in the west Wicklow mountains where he said he believed Jo Jo Dullard may have been taken and killed.The man told senior gardai, after the publication of the article, that an abandoned hunting lodge near the spot where Larry Murphy was seen strangling a young woman he had abducted in Carlow town in February 2000 was, in his view, a "place of interest" to Murphy. By this, he apparently deduced, Murphy may have taken previous victims to the same place.

The expert, as he has been described, came to Ireland and walked the countryside around the mountain road where Murphy was seen by two huntsmen as he was in the process of strangling his naked victim with her bra. He had placed a plastic bag over her head. It was a complete fluke the two men came upon Murphy who they recognised as living only a few miles away in the direction of Baltinglass.

Murphy has since become the centre of a national nightmare as the prime suspect in the disappearance of Jo Jo and several other young women who vanished over a near 20-year period in the Leinster area. It is noted that since Murphy's arrest, the day after he was spotted by the huntsmen, no other young women have disappeared.

The link between Murphy and Jo Jo is tenuous but still interesting. She was last seen after having phoned her home from a coin box at Moone, Co Kildare, and seen leaning in the back door of a dark-coloured Toyota Carina-type car 16 years ago.

When Murphy kidnapped the young businesswoman in Carlow town, after stunning her with a punch to her jaw, he drove her to almost the exact spot where Jo Jo was last seen. There he drove his victim into a nearby field and raped her for the first time.

After that he bundled her into the boot of his car and drove eastwards up into the Wicklow hills to Kilranelagh where on a dipping curve on the rough road overhung by trees he pulled over and raped her again.

He spoke to her throughout her ordeal and gave her details of his life which could identify him. He did so in the belief that she would soon be dead and presumably buried secretly in the wild and heavily wooded countryside. At one point he even allowed her to run away but in the darkness she ran into a loose barbed wire fence and further injured herself. He dragged her back to the car and, using her bra, began strangling her.

The two huntsmen came upon them as they returned from an evening further up in the hills and caught the scene in the headlights of their Land Rover.

Murphy's actions as he attempted to murder the Carlow woman also harked back to a previous murder of a young woman in the mountains. Antoinette Smith, 27, disappeared after apparently taking a lift in a car from Dublin city centre in July 1987. Nine months later her body was found in undergrowth at Glendoo about 40 miles away from Kilranelagh in the Dublin Mountains. Antoinette had been strangled with her bra and there was a plastic bag over her head.

Larry Murphy, a 36-year-old carpenter and father of two from Wicklow, was imprisoned in 2002, having been charged with the brutal **** of a woman, after being seen leaving the scene of the attack by two hunters deep in the woods of west Wicklow.

... while there's a chance that some of them know more than they've admitted to, there's little hope that they'll ever shed light on other women they may have attacked or killed, for fear of being handed additional sentences.A courtroom heard eleven months later how Murphy had attacked the woman in a car park in County Carlow, breaking her nose with a punch before bundling her into the trunk of his car.

He drove for several miles to Athy, County Kildare, where he raped the woman, and did so again after driving to Kilranelagh, County Wicklow.

After producing a black plastic bag which he placed over the woman's head, he was interrupted by hunters Trevor Moody and Ken Jones, who arrived on the scene, and rescued her.

He was arrested at his home the next day, after Moody and Jones, who both recognized him, gave his name to the Gardai.

What is worrying about Murphy's case is that he had never once come to the attention of the Gardai, though officers are aware that he lived just five miles from where JoJo Dullard was last seen alive, and was working in Newbridge when Deirdre Jacob vanished, leaving some to speculate about other crimes he may have committed.

Murphy has since been released from prison, to the astonishment and anger of the Irish public, and his subsequent alleged relocation to Amsterdam has been well documented by the Irish media.

Author Michael Sheridan meanwhile, believes there may be a link between Crerar and Murphy.

In his book 'Frozen Blood', he claims that one woman who knew Crerar, informed him that she often saw him coming in and out of a disused quarry in Kildare at various times, digging and burning items, and on one particular night, just after one of the missing women vanished, she heard "horrendous screams" in the middle of the night coming from the quarry, where she had earlier seen Crerar arguing with a younger man, whom the woman believes may have been Murphy.

DETECTIVES believe a potential murder investigation into the discovery of the remains of tragic Elaine O'Hara could hold the key to other unsolved missing women cases.t is expected that gardai will today launch a murder probe into the grim find in the Dublin mountains.

Last night, a senior gardai source said: "This could be the big one. What is happening here could be the most significant development in the investigations into all the missing women.

"Literally dozens of specialist gardai are working the case and it could well be that an entirely new suspect emerges – somebody who has been operating under the radar. The hope would be this individual would have little experience in how to deal with gardai and may panic if indeed the Elaine O'Hara case turns out to be murder."

Vanished

Detectives quickly ruled out the possibility that Ms O'Hara's remains were linked to Operation Trace, which has been focused on high-profile cases involving women who have gone missing during the past two decades.

But now there is also the possibility that whoever may have been responsible for her death could have killed before.

The suspected female murder victims include Deirdre Jacob, Jo Jo Dullard and Annie McCarrick – all of whom vanished in the 1990s.

Previously, the focus on their disappearances mostly centred on the notorious convicted rapist Larry Murphy, from Baltinglass, Co Wicklow.

However, any possible fresh investigation may open an entirely new line of inquiry.

American student Annie McCarrick was living in Sandymount in south Dublin when she went missing.

On March 26, 1993, the 26-year-old, from Long Island, New York, took a bus from her home to Ranelagh before boarding another to Enniskerry. She was reportedly last seen in Johnnie Fox's Pub in Glencullen, Co Dublin.

Jo Jo Dullard (21) was last spotted using a pay phone in Moone, Co Kildare, on November 9, 1995. She was hitchhiking home from Dublin to Kilkenny when she vanished.

Meanwhile, Deirdre Jacob (18) was last seen at the gate of her parents' house in Co Kildare on July 28, 1998.

I found this post very interesting, as i vividly remember all the reports of these girls going missing and the fact that i used to hitch from new-lands x to cork in the mid 80,s, which , in hindsight was a very dangerous thing for a young woman to do.

I wonder is Barry McGee the other sex offender that Larry Murphy is associated with in Amsterdam? Regardless of who it is surely this is a highly dangerous combination of characters ,their time in prison and more importantly their interest in violently dominating women the only common denominator that could encourage them to form a friendship.

I have read a few books about criminal profiling and they all seem to suggest that it takes a psychopathic rapist and murderer time to perfect their methods ,while it seems Larry Murphy was very organised and had it down to a T,but for the completely unforeseen interruption by the two men out lamping that night,also the fact that he engaged the poor girl in conversation and revealed facts about himself to her ,even if it was in an attempt to placate her before he took her to where he actually intended to kill her, shows he had planned to do all he did and had fully intended to kill her.would a first time criminal really be so organised and callous ? his comment to Gardai "she is Lucky" is a chilling insight to his mind set and could be a marker that maybe his previous victim(s) hadn't been so lucky.he is a very devious individual cool and calm never elaborated regarding his crime to gardai,family or other inmates never showing remorse,and pleading guilty so as to minimize his sentence and reduce questioning and interviewing. i think he doesn't need to talk about his crime(s) he has the memories which i think he relives ...he is an extremely dangerous man and i hope he never has the opportunity to inflict the same torture on any one again.

Dalton (32), an engineer and ex-soldier, is a registered sex offender but did not inform authorities he had gone to stay with his parents for nearly three months after temporarily splitting from his girlfriend.

Dublin District Court heard he was in a “dark period” and his life was in disarray at the time.

Judge Hugh O'Donnell applied the Probation Act, leaving him without a recorded conviction after he admitted the offence.

assault

The father-of-two was subject to the garda notification requirement after he was convicted in 2010 and jailed for a year for sexually assaulting a woman outside a disco in Kilkenny.

Dalton, with an address at Aughrim Street, Stoneybatter, pleaded guilty to failing to notify gardai of a change of address to Crumlin on dates between July 1 and September 22 last year.

The charge is under Section 12 of the Sex Offenders Act 2001.

He had previously denied the charge but the trial date was cancelled when he changed his plea to guilty.

The prosecuting garda said for the months in question, the accused was not at the correct address – Chancery Hall apartments in Dublin 7. He had no previous similar convictions.

The court heard the defendant had moved into the Bridewell District in March 2011 and complied with his notification requirements in relation to holidays and leaving the address temporarily. He had also been compliant to date since September 2013, travelling abroad to work in Sweden and France.

Dalton had broken up with his girlfriend because of the “stress of what we are talking about and why we are here”, his solicitor told the court. “It put enormous pressure on his relationship with his girlfriend and he had to move out.” Dalton had been in “complete disarray” and moved to his parents' house.

“He has no excuse, he should have notified the gardai,” his solicitor said. “He was in a very dark period”.

accused

Dalton had since reconciled with his girlfriend and is living with her again.

The accused had two children from a previous relationship, aged 11 and eight. He is a former private in the Army and had secured work as an engineer in Scotland.

“He has a good job and is trying to get himself sorted,” his solicitor said.

Judge O'Donnell asked the prosecuting garda if he believed the defendant would reoffend.

“I don't think so”, he replied.

The judge applied the Probation of Offenders Act, meaning Dalton will not have a conviction recorded for his breach of the sex offenders regulations.

The accused wore a blue shirt, navy tie, tan jacket and navy slacks during the brief hearing at the Criminal Courts of Justice.

LarryMurphy, Dalton's first cousin, has been linked to the disappearance of women in the Dublin and Wicklow mountains.

Gardai could begin searching as soon as this week for the secret grave of murdered woman Fiona Pender, the Sunday Independent has learned.

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Detectives investigating her murder have received what they believe to be the most significant information to date in their 18-year long probe into the disappearance of the 25-year-old woman. Fiona, who was last seen in August 1996, was seven months pregnant at the time.

A statement made to gardai by a woman living abroad is understood to indicate she was shown a location on farmland near Tullamore, Co Offaly, where, she claimed, a man who gardai regard as a suspect said that Fiona was buried.

The woman had never spoken to police before this month. They were alerted to the woman's claims after she made a complaint that her life had been threatened and she was in fear of being murdered.

She claims that her life was threatened and went to police in the country she is now living in.

She also claims that the man told her that he would do to her "what he did to Fiona". The man was arrested and is being held in custody.

It is understood he has yet to be interviewed by gardai and has denied threatening to kill the woman.

He has not been formally questioned about the disappearance of Fiona, but gardai can apply to travel to the country to question him in the presence of local police.

There are no plans to extradite the man back to Ireland as there is not sufficient evidence to charge him with Fiona's murder.

Under our extradition laws, there would have to be enough evidence to be able to bring him directly before the courts here to be charged.

It is understood that the decision by the woman to reveal her story has given gardai a basis for resuming the search for Fiona's body. In the months after her disappearance, extensive searches were carried out and a three-mile stretch of the Grand Canal drained, but to no avail.

With more specific information arising from the woman's statement it is understood gardai have already identified the location she has described and are preparing to begin searching again.

Fiona was last seen by her family and friends on August 22, 1996. She spent most of the afternoon with her mother Josephine who dropped her off at the flat in Church Street in Tullamore which Fiona shared with her then boyfriend, John Thompson.

A friend of Fiona's called at the flat the next day and could not get a reply.

The curtains were still drawn in the afternoon and she called Fiona's family.

When there was still no sign of Fiona, her family rang John Armstrong who said he hadn't seen her either. He said she was asleep when he left for work on the morning of August 23.

The gardai were then alerted.

Earlier this year Mrs Pender renewed her appeal for anyone with any information about her daughter's disappearance to come forward.

Up to 13,000 people signed a petition as part of a huge public campaign in Offaly for information about Fiona's disappearance.

The stretch of the canal that was drained during the search was subsequently named after Fiona.

A year after the disappearance gardai arrested and questioned five people, but released them without charge.

The case made no further advance though a series of what gardai described as "crank" leads were reported and had to be investigated.

Gardai and Fiona's family strongly believed she was killed by someone she knew and that others assisted in her disappearance and believed secret burial.

While Fiona's name has regularly been included in lists of women missing and believed murdered in the Leinster area during the 1990s gardai never suspected Fiona was the random victim of a serial killer.

Gardai questioned the rapist Larry Murphy about Fiona's disappearance after he began his prison sentence after conviction for the **** and attempted murder of a Carlow woman in 2000.